1. Field of the Invention
The illustrative embodiment relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for automatic transfer of data. In particular, the illustrative embodiment is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for automatically transferring data from one data processing system to another using an intermediate data storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems need to exchange data with other data processing systems in order to be useful. For example, data may be transferred to facilitate the use of data or to improve the use of data. People transfer data from a desktop computer to a mobile personal digital assistant (PDA), from a laptop computer to a phone, and from an email server to an email software application on a computer, a mobile phone, or a PDA. For example, people may transfer documents or spreadsheets in order to work on them in different places. People may also transfer other data, such as email, pictures, or video for use in different places.
Generally, a user of the data determines what data must be exchanged, which data processing system is the source of the data, and which data processing system is the destination. In performing such data exchanges, the data has to be carefully identified, and carefully formatted at the source data processing system to be acceptable to the destination data processing system. Further, the source and the destination are associated with each other through a well-known pre-established communication protocol over which the data exchange takes place.
Such data exchanges can take place nearly simultaneously, with the source data processing system providing the data and the destination data processing system receiving the data in a near real time fashion. Examples of such a data exchange are—transferring files using file transfer protocol (FTP), and downloading information from a website, such as a banking website. The data exchanges can also be performed a synchronously, where the source provides the data, and the data is stored for later retrieval by the receiver. An example of such a data exchange is an email system where a sender sends the email to a recipient and an email server holds the email in a recipient's mailbox account for later retrieval. In either case, the data being exchanged is required to form a particular format. Compliance with this format is required on the part of any source of such data, any system that holds the data being exchanged between the source and the receiver, and the receiver.
Data exchanges also take place with the use of portable storage devices such as floppy disks, CD-ROMS, and USB Flash-drives. These types of media are generally format agnostic. In other words, any type of data may be stored and exchanged using these types of media. These types of media, however, are incapable of distinguishing between the various sources and receivers of the data stored on these media. Any source equipped with writing technology that is compatible with these media may write data to such media, and any receiver with compatible reading technology may read from such media. Furthermore, such media require some user intervention in order to complete the data exchange. The CD-ROM, floppy disks, and USB flash-drives all require a user to place the medium in a drive or a port and execute the write through performance of a sequence of steps on the source data processing system. Likewise, the user must place the medium in a drive or a port at the receiver data processing system and execute a sequence of steps on the receiver data processing system to read the data.